Medical devices such as stents, stent grafts, and vena cava filters are often utilized in combination with a delivery device for placement at a desired location within the body. A medical prosthesis such as a stent, for example, may be loaded onto a stent delivery device such as a balloon catheter and then introduced into the lumen of a body vessel in a configuration having a reduced diameter. Once delivered to a target location within the body, the stent may then be expanded to an enlarged configuration within the vessel to support and reinforce the vessel wall while maintaining the vessel in an open, unobstructed condition. In some medical procedures such as a percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), for example, the stent may be deployed and expanded within a vessel adjacent to the location where a lesion has been removed to prevent restenosis or prolapse of the vessel at that region. The stent may be either self-expanding, or alternatively, may be mechanically expanded by the inflation of a balloon on the delivery device.
Inflation expandable stents are typically secured to the balloon of a balloon catheter in a reduced diameter configuration or profile prior to their use. In some techniques, for example, the stents are loaded onto the balloon and then inserted into a crimping device which applies an inwardly directed radial force to the stent to reduce the diameter of the stent around the balloon. In some techniques, the balloon material may be heated to an elevated temperature, such as greater than the glass transition temperature of the balloon material, causing the balloon material to soften and thus more easily conform to the contours of the stent. However, elevated temperatures have been found to adversely affect the performance and/or integrity of the drug eluting coating on the stent.
Therefore, there is an ongoing desire to provide alternative methods and techniques to crimp a stent onto a balloon of a balloon catheter. Furthermore, there is an ongoing desire to provide alternative arrangements of systems, assemblies and apparatus for crimping a stent onto a balloon of a balloon catheter.